Congressman: Holder quitting to avoid scandal heat

Eric Holder is leaving the post as Attorney General of United States. He’ll be holding onto the appointment until a resplacement if found, presumably within and year but more likely shortly after 2014 comes to an end.

According to Rep. Steve Stockman, R-TX), a congressman in Washington from the Lone Star State in an interview with World Net Daily, “Holder knows the House is after him to produce his emails in the IRS scandal involving Lois Lerner, and he wants to get out now, in the possibility the Republicans control both the House and Senate after the November elections”

Calling him the “stonewaller in chief of the Obama administration,” Stockman said “the pressure is building on Holder in Congress and Obama knows it.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND that Holder “will be remembered for his total disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law, which has become emblematic of the lawless Obama administration.”

Holder, now 63, will return private practice after leaving the government, advising corporations on legal affairs.

Jerome Corsi and Garth Kant of WND (World Net Daily) have the full story.
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Eric Holder is “getting out while the getting is good,” contends a Republican congressman in reaction to reports Thursday that the attorney general will resign.

“Holder knows the House is after him to produce his emails in the IRS scandal involving Lois Lerner, and he wants to get out now, in the possibility the Republicans control both the House and Senate after the November elections,” said Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, in an interview with WND.

Multiple sources are reporting Holder will step down as soon as a successor is confirmed, which means he could stay in office well into next year. One source reported the attorney general is “adamant” about leaving soon so that he doesn’t end up staying in the job during the remainder of President Obama’s second term.

According to a White House press pool report, President Obama has not decided on a successor.

Calling him the “stonewaller in chief of the Obama administration,” Stockman said “the pressure is building on Holder in Congress and Obama knows it.”

“Holder has been keeping the lid on the IRS scandal so far, but I think Congress is going to find out there has been collusion between Holder’s Justice Department and the way the IRS investigations of conservatives have been pursued,” he said.

Stockman signed on to a bill introduced by Rep. Pete Olsen, R-Texas, in November 2013 asking for Holder’s impeachment over the IRS and Fast and Furious scandals. It currently has 28 supporters, all Republicans, and includes eight other Texans.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND Holder “will be remembered for his total disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law, which has become emblematic of the lawless Obama administration.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, noted in a statement that he has been calling for many years for Holder to resign.

“Not only has he lied before members of Congress and, ultimately, been held in contempt, he has obfuscated the truth and been the most partisan, partial, prejudiced and self-pitying attorney general in my lifetime, including John Mitchell, who went to jail for his crime.”

Gohmert charged Holder has “prosecuted more people for leaking, which sometimes is an effort at whistleblowing, than all other attorneys general added together.”

“He has not only failed to investigate crimes and potential crimes occurring in this administration, he has been the ‘cover-upper-in-chief’ and will be sorely missed by those in the administration like Lois Lerner who want to disobey the law and flaunt it,” Gohmert said.

Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., said in a statement Holder has “consistently demonstrated to the American people that the main task during his tenure has been to protect the White House and the White House agenda, more than pursue justice to the fullest extent.”

He said Obama should nominate someone who can restore American trust in the rule of law, noting Holder was held in contempt of Congress.

“Before the attorney general steps down, he should clear his desk of the documents and information he still owes Congress under subpoena,” Lankford said. “It is unacceptable for the nation’s highest law enforcement individual to stall and then resign without fulfilling his legal obligations to Congress.”

‘Window closing’

Stockman argued the window for Holder to exit gracefully is closing rapidly as the mid-term elections in November approach. He said impeachment proceedings against Holder might turn up enough evidence to justify a criminal indictment, especially if it develops he played a role in the IRS targeting of conservatives.

“When we start checking the White House guest list and Holder shows up there more often than Kathleen Sebelius when she headed Obamacare, and the House starts tracking Lois Lerner’s history of government jobs and starts proving she had a history of being political and hating conservatives going back to when she was employed by the Justice Department and the FEC, the pressure on the Obama administration will turn up dramatically,” Stockman said.

“That’s what Obama seeks to avoid by having Holder resign now.”

Stockman said he also believes Holder is “angling to get a judgeship appointment in Obama’s last two lame-duck years in office.”

“Cleverly, Holder’s getting out while the Democratic Senate can still confirm a replacement,” he said. “This will avoid a lot of questions the Obama administration would face if Holder’s resignation came after the mid-terms when Holder’s replacement might have to face a Republican Senate.”

Lightning rod

Sources say Holder finalized plans to leave office in a meeting with Obama over the weekend.

Holder reportedly informed his Justice Department staff and some members of Congress Thursday morning of his decision. He has not revealed what his future plans hold.

A leading candidate to replace Holder is Solicitor General Don Verrilli, the administration’s lawyer to the Supreme Court.

Holder, 63, has been a lightning rod for criticism for both his actions and his words.

He called America “a nation of cowards” regarding race relations in a 2009 Black History Month speech.

His decision to try the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City was severely criticized by national politicians, local officials and surviving family members.

The attorney general refused to fulfill his obligation to defend a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

He was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents in the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal. It was the first time in the nation’s history that an attorney general had been charged with that offense, but President Obama kept his friend on the job.

Holder sued North Carolina and Texas over voting laws he claimed oppressed minorities.

He launched 20 investigations into alleged abuses by local police departments despite the fact a Washington Post investigation blasted his own performance supervising local police abuses during his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1990s.

And, he injected himself personally into the controversy in Ferguson, Missouri, over the summer, by launching a federal investigation into the local police shooting of a young black man by a white officer almost immediately after the incident, and before many details of the case had been verified or publicly revealed.

When Holder traveled to Ferguson, he specifically cited race as a reason for being there.

He told residents, “I am the attorney general of the United States, but I am also a black man.”

The nation’s top law-enforcement official recounted the humiliation and anger he felt in earlier years after being stopped for speeding twice on the New Jersey turnpike. He referred to the racial “mistrust and mutual suspicion” between the black community and law enforcement in Ferguson.

But race did not appear to motivate Holder to crack down on the epidemic of police shootings in Washington, D.C., either during his tenure as U.S. attorney or attorney general. Holder, appointed by President Clinton in 1993, was the first African-American to become the district’s U.S attorney.